Set in the days before Noah, this novel reveals what it may have been like when “all men did what was right in their own eyes.” The impoverished village of Bedlam receives a sudden visit from their King Orion, who promises health, rain and prosperity will come to them once again. During his visit, he and his royal cavalcade devour the last of the village’s bread, meat, goat’s milk, and water, and the king performs his usual rape of the village’s best virgin. The virgin is the village elder’s daughter, coincidentally attracted to the town outcast, Hershel, the son of the late town prostitute. Their love story is supposedly the focus of the story, but it ends neither triumphantly nor courageously.

Trapp is a skilled story-teller, painting vivid descriptions of the events; unfortunately, this reader does not relish in such portrayals of rape or brutal murders. Hershel the brothelite is representative of good, one who learned from his mother to believe in God, but his mother paradoxically chose to remain in a life of prostitution when she had an opportunity for escape.
If this novel were a movie, it would be rated R for brutal violence and sexual content. It also has several typographical errors (ie: “he waived to her”) throughout. Sorry, it’s not one this reader can recommend.